Monday 20 December 2021

Stanley Woolass's present 1915

 Quite a few years ago I posted an article to the website relating to the life and tragic death of Ralph Skelton Woolass. Ralph was a fighter pilot in WW2 and was on a channel sweep on 16th April 1942 when his Spitfire was shot down by a Me109 off Cap de la Hague in Northern France.

His brother kindly assisted me with additional information in 2013 which I placed on the blog 

Last week a reader of the site sent me three images




They stated that they had " bought a book in a charity shop. The book is a 1912 RL Stevenson book and is presented to Stan Woolass from a friend in 1915 with a Latin quotation. In hoc signo vinces" 

NB For those readers of the blog that are not conversant with Latin it conventionally translates into English as "In this sign thou shalt conquer". The sign means The Cross

I was wondering whether this is the Stanley Woolass who was the father father of Ralph. The dates seem to match up. If it is Ralph’s father, he will have been 23 Years old at the time he received the book."

Although I cannot be certain I think that on the balance of possibilities the book was gifted to Ralph's father. A very interesting find  

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